At this month’s BETA Explore, we were lucky to have Erica Thompson, Director of Creative at soona as our session leader!
She shared the crucial steps for creating content for every stage of your business, whether you just launched or are just trying out a new product. If you missed out on the BETA Explore, you can read the six key steps to success below! You can also watch the full recording here.
Step 1: First you dream
- Visualize your dream brand, what content do you want to see?
- Is it: Playful? Serious? Colorful?
- Do you see live action videos? Still shots? Models?
Step 2: Define your audience
- Understand your audience (demographics: age, gender, race, income, etc.) of your target market)
- Create channel personas based off that understanding
Step 3: Create content buckets for each stage -- they’ll be your guide.
Content buckets are the different stages of content creation. Launch buckets start in the introduction stage of your business; growth buckets begin in the growth stage; and the beyond buckets kick off at the end of the growth stage / beginning of the shake-out stage.
- Launch bucket: product, how-to, lifestyle (how does it fit in people’s lives?)
- Growth bucket: seasonal (ex. holidays), promotional, testing (what does my audience react to?)
- Beyond bucket: testimonial (show experiences), new products, UGC (user generated content)
Step 4: Make your mood boards (consistency is key)
- Definition: Collage of images, materials, pieces of text, etc. that projects a particular style or concept.
- Pinterest is a great resource
- Make different mood boards for each bucket
- Follow brands that inspire you
Step 5: Schedule your shoots
- Start launch content
- Growth content monthly
- Beyond content quarterly
Step 6: Schedule and post-publish
- Post
- Measure (impressions, reactions, etc.)
- Test (try out new things)
What about non-product content?
- Focus on your people/ team
- Add behind-the-scenes content
- Feature the service you offer and how to obtain it
What about B2B content?
- Show problem(s) you’re solving with your service
- Create a mood board around the solution
- Ask yourself: what do your customers want to see?
How to create cohesive content:
- Have a vision
- Remember: you can always change course
- Get out of your comfort zone when testing
Other helpful tips:
- Understand your audience when you’re choosing which social media channels to use: for example, older audiences will use Facebook and younger audiences will use TikTok
- Use ethos (credibility, ethics), pathos (emotion), and logos (logic) to your advantage when creating content!
About soona:
soona is a content creation platform that makes it simple for e-commerce stores and marketers to create pro photos and videos in 3 easy steps. Learn more here!
About BETA
BETA is a 501(c)(3) organization that develops Minnesota’s next generation of business leaders by inspiring and educating first-time founders. The BETA Group nurtures startups and small businesses with great scalability potential, so that they can grow to become our next Fortune 100s. Learn more here.